Ex-Bolton forward explains Sunderland’s interest and frantic transfer deadline day during relegation battle

Former Bolton forward Kevin Davies has explained how he came close to joining Sunderland when Martin O’Neill was in charge at the Stadium of Light.

Wanderers, then managed by Owen Coyle, were battling to avoid relegation during the 2011/12 season when an agent tried to line up a move to Wearside for the long-serving Davies.

"I had left my agent, who I’d been with for a while, and one called me up,” Davies told Kammy & Ben’s Proper Football Podcast. “(The agent) said, ‘I’ve got you a move to Sunderland lined up – a two-year deal, better money, Martin O’Neill is the manager. He wants you to go up there, he wants you to coach the strikers.’

"I actually saw Martin at a game about three weeks ago. I hadn’t seen him since and we had a chat about it. He said, ‘You’d have been great.’

"But this agent turned up at my door unannounced on transfer deadline day at about six-thirty or seven o’clock, banging my door down trying to get this deal done. I’m literally getting my kids ready for school.

"We get in the car and he’s got Martin O’Neill on the phone. He is saying, ‘You’ve got to go in there, you’ve got to tell (Coyle) you want to leave.’

"We were in a relegation scrap at the time and I was the captain. I’d probably done eight-and-a-half or nine years at this stage.”

Davies, now 46, set up his own football agency in 2020 but says young players can be easily misled.

"I was uncomfortable with it and this guy, who I’d known for a long time,” Davies continued. “He’s a friend of a friend and has quite a few big clients - he was ramming it down my throat.

"I went in to see Owen Coyle and he said, ‘What’s going on? This guy is saying there’s a move to Sunderland. We don’t want you to go, you’re the captain and we want you to stay.’

“I told him my contract was up in four or five months and he said: ‘We’ll get something sorted, you’ve got my word on it. We’ll draw something up for you today or tomorrow, tell him to do one.’

"I had to go back to the car and tell this guy to go. I finished training and he’s still hanging around the training ground at one o’clock, two o’clock, hanging around the corner trying to get me up there.

"I said, ‘The money’s not life changing, I’m happy in Bolton and I want to be at home around my kids. Do I want to be travelling three or four times a week for a few more quid? No. Just turn it down and do one.’

"This is me at 33 or 34 so you can imagine what it’s like for a 17 or 18-year-old. They probably can’t have that experience to say no.

"They are forcing players to go and do these things. It looks bad on the player but I think a lot of the time it does come from.”